Forever and a Day
by waiting for mr.right
Summary: Shortly after Edward leaves Bella in the woods she is changed. She goes to France to become an artist. However, her plans are put on hold as she is drawn to a B&B in the countryside. R&R. Recently updated.
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER 1**

**BPOV**

I lay in bed that night clutching my arms around my stomach, trying to hold myself together. It wasn't working. My days had started to blur together, but I still kept count. I had not left my room for 20 days. Ever since I realized that he wasn't coming back.

That day in the forest he had told me that he didn't want me that he wasn't coming back, but it took a while to sink in. After he left me in the forest I wandered around until I fell down, I never got up. Charlie told me when I woke up in the hospital that I had been missing for 2 ½ days and that I had finally been found deep in the Olympic National Forest about 25 miles from our house. I vaguely remember leaving the hospital the next day.

I could tell Charlie was concerned for me, he kept asking what was wrong, where Edward was, and I could not reply. I could not even think about it.

During the week that followed I had gotten up, eaten breakfast, showered, got dressed, and waited. I did not watch TV, or read; I sat numbly on the porch steps and waited.

I continued waiting for seven more days, I knew Charlie was worried, but I couldn't bring myself to care. That day Charlie came and sat by me on the porch. I heard him speak, but the words sounded very far away. I focused on what he was saying, maybe _he_ had come back.

"Bella, what's wrong, I can't take it anymore, I have to know, what happened."

This was not what I wanted to hear. I continued to sit on the porch steps without answering his questions. I had not spoken since I woke up in the hospital seven days ago, the last conversation I had was with _him_, and I wanted it to stay that way. I continued watching the setting sun and started to tune Charlie out again. I was roughly brought back to the present when I felt him grasp my hands and start to rub them with his own. I heard Charlie say,

"Bells, you're so cold."

What did I care if my hands were cold? Why did it matter? I didn't care. I mutely sat staring ahead at the sinking sun. Charlie kept rubbing my hands and soon I forgot he was there.

**CPOV**

It had been a week since Harry Clearwater had found Bella in the forest. Those 2 ½ days had been the worst of my life. In my head I replayed what had happened a week and two days ago. I had gotten home from my shift around 8 and noticed that Bella was not home, but it was Friday night after all and she was a teenager, with a boyfriend. The last thought made me grimace. My little Bella had a boyfriend and it was Edward Cullen. I had a deep respect for Dr. Cullen he was a great man and Forks was lucky to have such a talented doctor in such a small town. It wasn't the fact that Bella was dating his son that concerned me, it was that Bella was dating at all. I logically knew that she was 17 and that girls her age dated, but I also could not fathom that my little girl was old enough to date anyone. Over the last couple months Edward had been over constantly, and even after that ordeal in Phoenix last summer I had begun to begrudgingly like the kid.

It had been a long day and I looked in the fridge to see if Bella had left anything in there for supper before she left. I had eaten better than ever before since she had come to live here. Renee was a terrible cook, I survived on takeout from Pacific Pizza before she came back, and I had to admit I was definitely getting spoiled from the food that Bella made. Score, there was still leftover lasagna from a couple nights ago. I watched the delicious slice of lasagna slowly rotate in the microwave, my mouth watering at the smell. Once it was done I grabbed a can of Vitamin R, flicked on the TV, settled into my recliner, and started to watch the Mariners game.

The game had started at 8pm and ended at 11pm, Bella's curfew was midnight on weekends and she had never been late before. I was not concerned she was a responsible girl, mature beyond her years. With Renee as a mom I was pretty sure I knew why. I started glancing at the clock every couple of minutes waiting to hear Edward's Volvo turning into the driveway. Those Cullen kids had it good; my first car had been a light blue Rabbit with 200,000 miles. It must be nice to be that rich.

I listened as the clock struck midnight and decided to give her a couple more minutes. I did not want to be the overbearing, controlling dad who overreacted when his daughter was five minutes late. I waited until 12:10 before I called the Cullen's house.

I called the Cullen's home to see if time had gotten away from her. The phone rang 13 times and when no one answered the feeling of uneasiness I had been trying to keep at bay since midnight got closer forcefully descended upon me. I then called the hospital and asked the nurse who answered to connect me to Dr. Cullen. That conversation burned itself into my memory, it was the moment I realized that something was very, very, wrong.

"Forks hospital, nurse Fran speaking how may I direct your call?"

"Hello, this is Chief Swan, my daughter seems to have forgotten her curfew and I was hoping that Dr. Cullen could tell me where Edward and her have gone?"

"Oh, hi Chief Swan. I'm sorry but Dr. Cullen no longer works for this hospital. He got an offer to work in L.A. and I guess he was needed immediately because he packed up his office and left."

The uneasiness I had been feeling was turning into panic very quickly as the nurse spoke to me. She sounded like she was unhappy with the situation and I could tell when a person was going to start a rant, and I didn't have time for a rant so I interrupted.

"Excuse me, but are you telling me that Dr. Cullen is gone?" The nurse replied in a somewhat miffed voice, probably at being interrupted so abruptly.

"Yes, Chief Swan, he is gone. Then entire family is gone, and I do not think they are coming back."

I hung up the phone not caring that I was being rude and became extremely panicked.

The first coherent thought I had was that she had left with them. I quickly realized that could not be what happened, Dr. Cullen would never allow something that irresponsible to happen. The next thought I had was that Bella was a responsible girl and that if she was planning on being out late she would have called me, or left a note. I ran into the kitchen and checked the answer machine, 0 messages. I picked up my cell phone that had been close to dead when I got home and was now plugged into the wall charging, 0 messages. The panic was starting to become unbearable as I glanced around the kitchen looking for a note. I had almost called the station when I saw the white corner of an index card sticking out slightly from the bottom of the refrigerator. A note, I smacked my hand against my forehead, of course she had left a note. I just had not seen it because I was distracted by the lure of lasagna. The panic that had been building with every second that went by responded to this thought gladly and I felt it go down a couple notches.

I snatched it up from the floor, immediately recognizing Bella's familiar script.

_Dad, I am going for a walk in the woods. I'll be back in time for dinner._

_Love, Bella_

I stared at the index card, the respite from full blown panic was a distant memory at this point, and I could hear my heart beating loudly in my chest as it overwhelmed me. I felt not only panic now but worry and fear. She had gone for a walk in the woods, alone. She was lost. FUCK! I had sat around for the last four hours and all that time she was lost. I called the secretary at the station dreading the words I knew I had to say.

"Hello, Forks Police Department, this is Jackie speaking, how may I assist you... Hello…Chief Swan, I have you on caller ID I know it is you, what's wrong?"


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

**CPOV**

"Jackie, Bella's missing, she got lost in the woods about six hours ago, we need to get a search party out right away."

"I'll get right on it chief."

"Thanks Jackie."

After the conversation with Jackie a search party was organized. Two hours after the phone call the immediate area by the house was being searched. About 100 people had volunteered to search for Bella. By 3am it was established that she was no longer by the house. I called Billy Black and asked him to call his buddy Harry Clearwater who had hunting/tracking dogs.

We searched all night and with dawn, at last, came a call from Billy. I answered the phone a little gruffly but I was pissed, it had taken way too long for him to call back.

"Billy, what did he say?"

"It took a while to track him down Charlie; he was in the middle of nowhere camping. I just got off the phone with him and he is 20 hrs away, at the earliest."

I felt my anger spiraling out of control, I knew that Billy had done everything he could but I was still furious.

"Damn it Billy she has already been missing for at least 15 hours, Bella is a danger magnet walking down a straight road let alone lost in the fucking forest, she could already be dead by now, 20 hours is NOT acceptable!"

"I know Charlie, I know, but Harry's dogs are the best and I know they will find her."

I heard Billy sigh, my anger drained away, despair took its place.

"Charlie, have you found anything yet?"

"Yes, Billy we found a path and followed it to the river, but then it disappeared."

I was getting antsy to rejoin the search so I said, "Tell Harry to call my cell and I will have someone bring him to me."

"You will find her Charlie, I am certain of it, goodbye."

I also thought she would be found, but the burning question in my mind was, would she be alive when we found her? It was 9pm when Harry finally got to the search area by the river where we had lost her trail. For the last eight excruciating hours I had paced up and down the river looking for any sign of her. I did not find one. Neither did the other volunteers. So when the dogs came I felt a little window of hope. Which Harry quickly squashed when he said,

"We'll have to wait until morning, so that we don't hurt ourselves or the dogs running through the dark forest."

I knew this was logical but she had been missing for 29 hours. I refused to believe, or even entertain the idea that she was dead. My Bella was a fighter, a survivor, and she was probably holed up somewhere close by waiting for her Dad to find her. We were about 2 miles west of our house, and Bella was not a big hiker so I thought that we had to be getting close.

At first light I gave Harry a Ziploc bag with her pillowcase inside. Harry put the pillowcase under the dogs' nose and almost immediately they started running down the riverbank. I met eyes with Harry and asked if the dogs had got her scent. He gave me a curt nod and ran after them. So did I. As I was running I was also calculating; Bella had been missing for over 40 hours.

Eight hours later we were still searching the forest following Harry's dogs. I was getting very irritated with Harry and his stupid mutts. We were now about 15 miles from the house and Harry was adamant that the dogs were still following her trail; which made absolutely no sense. Bella knows that when you are lost to stay put, why had she walked this far away?

I had just about given up hope that we were on the right trail when I heard the bloodhounds start to howl. I ran toward the sound and immediately saw what the cause was; they had found one of Bella's white sneakers which was partially stuck in some mud.

We continued following the dogs for about another 10 miles, we were so deep in the Olympic National Forest that in the fading sunlight almost no light penetrated the dense forest canopy. The longer the search went the more volunteers got tired and went home. I had barely slept or eaten since Bella had gone missing. Why would I?

For the last half hour we had been searching without using the dogs. We had gotten to a section of woods that the dogs had started to backtrack a lot, and go in circles.

Harry, what the hell is wrong with your mutts, we have already been here!"

"Charlie, this is good news, it means she is close by." "She probably wandered in circles and that's why the dogs cannot pick out her scent, so stop your bitching and search!"

And that is what I did. I struck out on my own and after about a half hour I head the shrill sound of a whistle being blown. There was only one reason we were to blow the whistle, Bella had been found.

I ran and crashed through the underbrush heedless of the branches that tried to hinder my progress toward the sound of the whistle. I imagined seeing Bella again. She would be hungry and probably very embarrassed at how mush fuss had been made over her disappearance. She would say,

"Dad, you know how I am, I thought I was going the right way and by the time I realized I wasn't I thought that if I walked in a straight line long enough I would eventually run into a road"

She face would turn the color of a tomato and I would give her the biggest bear hug I could – short of breaking her ribs.

I could hear the whistle getting louder and then I stumbled into the clearing. At once the reunion scenario I had imagined so clearly crumbled to dust in front of my eyes.

I saw Harry kneeling next to her trying to get a response out of her. I made my way to her side and saw the person I had been desperately searching for, for the past 61 hours. She was curled up in a ball on the forest floor. I could see that she was filthy, mud covered her from head to toe. I grabbed her and pulled her into a bear hug and told her how happy I was that we had finally found her. While I was doing this I noticed two things, 1.) She was very, very cold and 2.) She hadn't spoken or moved since I started to hug her. I eased up my grip and looked at her face; which had some streaks of clean skin. The streaks had clearly come from tears that she had shed. That is when I realized that her eyes were closed.

I could feel her pulse in her wrist, so she was definitely alive. I wasn't a doctor but even I know that unconsciousness was not a good sign. I heard Harry talking to someone on the phone and seconds later I was carrying a limp, unresponsive Bella through the forest to an emergency vehicle about ¼ of a mile from where we had found her. By the time we got to the waiting vehicle my body was exhausted, my arms were almost shot from carrying Bella so far.

There were paramedics waiting with a stretcher which I gingerly placed her on. We got into the ambulance and headed toward the hospital. I held onto her hand and frantically tried to figure out a way to fix this horrible situation. The paramedic whose name I had already forgotton shook me, and snapped me out of my inward dialogue.

"Chief Swan, when you and Harry found Bella in the woods did she respond in

any way?"

"No, she did not"

I saw the paramedic's eyes tighten at this news, and he scribbled something on his piece of paper.

"At any time did she open her eyes"

"No."

At that answer his mouth thinned, and he scribbled more on that damn piece of paper.

I could not help myself I glanced up at Bella's face hoping that she would be awake, she wasn't. I could not stand the scribbling the paramedic was still doing, so I screamed at him

"What the fuck happened to her!"

"Sir, she probably was exhausted and drifted off to sleep."

I nodded and clenched my jaw.

When we got to the hospital they took Bella away to run tests and it was another 4 hours until I saw her again. Dr. Pascil came out to tell me what was wrong. He came up to me and said,

"Charlie, Bella is stable but unconscious." "She is running a fever of 102 degrees Fahrenheit, she is also severely dehydrated, and we treated her for cuts and scrapes which look like they were caused by branches." "We gave her Tylenol for the fever, fluids for the dehydration." "I think that both of those conditions will rapidly improve now that she is being taken care of."

I shook his hand; Bella was going to be ok. I pulled up the chair by her bed and settled in for a long night.

She slept for another 12 hours before I saw her open her eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N **I have to send out a huge thank you to **Zombie's Run This Town **without her this story still wouldn't have a title. Also thank you to **BlackVampAngel, Zombie's Run This Town (again), Miss Brat, twilightmom423** for reviewing and adding me to their alerts. I really have no idea how this story is going. Please review I have had 51 hits on my story and 4 reviews, if there is any I can improve it feel free to send me constructive criticisms. I really put a lot into this chapter, and yay! my finals are OVER!

**CHAPTER 3**

**CPOV**

I sprang out of my chair and grabbed Bella's hands.

"Bella, you're awake thank god, you scared me half to death." "What were you thinking walking so deep in the forest?"

I looked up at her expecting an answer and all I saw was a vacant dazed set of brown eyes looking at the wall.

She was discharged two days later, against my better judgement, and various threats to the doctors that I would arrest them. I mean come on, she was not ready to leave the hospital she had not spoken, and she barely reacted to anything. Still, after that second day I was helping her into my cruiser and driving toward the house.

During the week that followed Bella got ready for the day and was sitting on the porch by 5am, and stayed there until midnight every night. I knew she was not sleeping, the dark circles got worse every day and she was now almost as pale as the Cullens. I had not called Renee yet. I was being a chicken shit, I knew it, but I did not want Renee to know that her daughter was- for lack of a better word-broken. I kept thinking Bella would be normal again in the morning.

I thought through all this as I sat rubbing her hands on the porch. I decided to try once again to make her tell me what happened.

"Bells, I need to know, I need to know right now, or tomorrow I am calling Renee and we will put you in a hospital to help you deal with whatever happened"

**BPOV**

I heard Charlie and I knew that he was serious. I knew I could not go to a psych hospital because I wanted to feel what I was going through, not deaden it with meds. If I felt it, it meant that I was at least alive. Although at this point I wasn't sure if that was a positive. I was technically still breathing but _he_ had taken my soul.

I decided I had to tell Charlie what I could, and that killed me because it meant that my last conversation would now be with Charlie. In a low raspy whisper my unused voice choked out,

"He left me, he didn't want me anymore, he is never coming back, he never loved me"

I ran into the house, up the stairs, into my bedroom and crawled into bed. I had just admitted that I was unwanted and unloved. I always knew that it did not make sense that someone as special as _him _would ever want someone as plain as me. I know that I am plain, with brown lanky hair, skinny, and an A cup size. I mean if I am being completely fucking honest with myself it would be like Frankenstein marrying Jessica Alba. Things like that just did not fucking happen.

I have no idea how long I laid in bed it was like I had ceased to be. I knew that someone, probably Charlie, was taking care of me. I knew that I would be better off dead than to have my father care for me like I was completely useless. I felt useless, but I also knew that I was making Charlie miserable.

I slowly uncurled myself from the ball I had been in for who knows how long. I felt Charlie staring at me. Unlike when I looked at him in the hospital I did not see any hope spark in his eye. He knew that his Bells was gone. He answered my unasked question.

"Isabella, it has been three days since you ran in here from the porch" "I have tried to keep you semi hydrated by forcing water down your throat." "I have no idea what I should do" "I should call Renee, but what would I say?" "I'm going to give you some time to heal, but in return you need to take basic care of yourself."

I stood up on shaky legs grabbed some pajamas and headed toward the bathroom. I operated on autopilot the entire time. Right after I was finished I got right back into bed and tried to become completely numb.

Time really did not mean anything to me. Once in a while Charlie would shake me out of my thoughts and I would go on autopilot and shower, or pick at some food he sat in front of me. I was miserable, more than miserable, I was in despair. I tried to recover, but it was no use. How can someone function without a soul?

**CPOV**

It had been twenty days since that day on the porch. She was not getting any better. Every so often I would get her to shower, eat, and drink some water. I called Renee yesterday and she was beyond pissed. She had every right to be. She said that she and Phil were going to be on the first flight to forks, and that they would be in Forks by today. I snapped out of my thoughts by the phone ringing. The shrill ringing cut through the endless silence which prevailed in my house. I answered the phone and said,

"Chief Swan speaking what do you want."

"Chief Swan this is the Port Angeles hospital calling I am afraid I have some rather bad news." "Your ex-wife and her husband were in a plane crash about two hours ago." "Phil died on impact, your ex-wife made it to the hospital, but I regret to inform you that she passed away about ten minutes ago" "I am sorry for your loss, please contact the

Hospital very soon to make arrangements for the bodies."

I put the phone back on the cradle staring at it like it had grown fangs. I could not believe what had just happened. When the phone rang I had no idea that my horrible month was just about to get even worse. Renee was dead? No, it didn't make sense; I had just spoken to her yesterday.

I flicked on the TV and flipped channels till I was on the news. BREAKING NEWS was plastered on the top of the screen and it showed plane wreckage over a big swath of land. It said that the plane had departed from Jacksonville and had crashed four hours later. Renee was dead, no question, that was her plane and it was now in a million pieces. The beautiful girl I had married fresh out of high school was dead. The mother of my child was dead. How the hell did my life get so fucked?

Should I tell Bella? She was already nearly catatonic; would this push her over the edge? Or maybe, just maybe, it would snap her out of her misery. The more I thought about it I realized that I could not keep her mother's death from her. Hopefully this would bring her back to me, and then we could both mourn together.

**BPOV**

I felt Charlie start to shake me again. So I got up and headed toward my dresser, only to have Charlie pull me back to the bed. The back of my knees hit the bed, making my legs buckle so I was sitting on the edge of the bed. This was different. I started to tune him out. He wrenched my chin up to look at him.

"Isabella, I have some bad news." "I called your mom yesterday and she got on the first flight from Jacksonville."

That got my attention my mom would commit me as soon as she got here. Shit.

"Isabella, that's not all." "The flight Renee and Phil were on crashed a couple of hours ago, they were both killed."

For the first time since _he _left me I tried to focus on what was happening. Charlie had just said that mom and Phil were dead. He was utterly serious; this was not a scheme to get me to talk to him. I knew it.

"Isabella, I have to call the hospital to…….make arrangements." "I am so sorry honey."

Charlie left me in my room, and I sat there in the same position, on the bed.

I was miserable; my misery was making Charlie miserable. Because of me mom and Phil were on that plane, and it was my fault they died. Why was I putting him through this? It would be so much easier to just take myself out of the equation. Suicide, I never thought I would be thinking about such an awful thing. I already felt dead; at least if I was dead I would not have to remember/think/feel anything anymore. Charlie would eventually recover and regain a semblance of a normal life without his soulless daughter weighing him down like an anchor. I looked at the clock by my bed it was 1pm, plenty of time. I got out two envelopes and wrote two letters, and threw them on the bed.

I crawled out of my bed and snuck down the stairs. I could hear Charlie on the phone, and I let myself out the front door. I put my truck in neutral and coasted down the driveway so Charlie wouldn't hear me start the beast. The drive out to la push seemed to go on for an eternity.

I got out of my truck and ran to the edge of the cliff where I remembered some of the boys from la push went cliff diving. I could tell there was a storm coming in, that was good it would make this a lot easier. I silently said my goodbyes to my family and to…_them_.

I stepped off of the edge and for the first time in almost a month I felt myself smile. I didn't even scream. I plunged into the icy water and felt my body absorb the impact. I knew that I could still kick to the surface and fight for my life, but I didn't, I was at peace.

My lungs began to burn, I got lightheaded, and I could feel myself start to blackout. Just them I felt a hand grab me and haul me toward the surface. When we broke the surface I was pissed, and my traitorous lungs greedily sucked in air. The person dragged me toward the beach. I couldn't even kill myself properly, what a loser. Then I heard the person begin to speak.

"Ms. Swan that was a very foolhardy thing you did." "My name is Eleazar, I am a vampire." "I will not allow you to destroy yourself." "It would be a waste and you have too much potential."

What the fuck was going on? What did he mean he would not _allow_ me to kill myself he could not st-----

It was at that point I felt his teeth sinking into my wrist. I felt the heat begin and the pain start to spread. This is how that bastard Eleazar was going to stop me from killing myself, by turning me.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Here's chapter 4. It's a bit short but the next one is going to be longer. Also this is the last really introspective chappie. The next one is going to have fluff : ) Thank you to Bananna 18 and Zombies's run this town for reviewing. **

**CHAPTER 4**

**BPOV**

The Cullens had told me that being turned was absurdly painful, call me a masochist but the thought of something being so painful that I could not think was actually a relief. Since my plans of suicide had been foiled I was now looking forward to at least a brief respite from the emotional overload I had been suffering from for the last month. The burning was encompassing my entire body now and I could feel myself being carried somewhere very quickly.

I don't know how long the change took but when I heard my heart give its final beat I knew that my old life was over, and that there was no going back. It was at that moment that I felt something poke me in the arm. That bastard Elaezar must still be here. What I heard next petrified me.

"Mommy, is the pretty lady dead?"

What in the HELL was that? I took a tentative breath. Oh my fucking gosh….humans. Three of them. Oh shit. I was a newborn vampire that was supposed to be completely controlled by my thirst. My throat was on fire, my mouth flooded with venom and I knew that I was capable of killing all three of them.

I opened my eyes and staring into them was a little girl about 6 or 7 years old with blond pigtails and a worried expression. I saw that her parents were almost to where I was in the cave and I sat up cautiously. It was then that I noticed that the scent the humans gave off was like the scent of a candle. It smelled utterly fabulous and delicious but the thought of eating a candle was just gross. What a relief. I felt a little smug, and smiled at the little girl and her parents.

"No sweetie I am not dead." "I was just hiking in the woods and came in here to get a little bit of rest."

Her parents were just staring at me in something akin to shock. The woman snapped out of it first, and then noticing her husband's state she snapped her fingers in front of his face to snap him out of his stupor. The wife said,

"My name is Sophia, this is my husband Derrick, and our daughter Lea." "We're day hiking here too." "Do you need any help."

"Yes, I am afraid that I lost track of time and my ride left without me could you give me a ride to the nearest town?"

"Sure, no problem, we're staying in Port Angeles it is only about fifteen minutes from here."

I got up carefully from the cave floor because I knew that if I did not concentrate I could scare away the humans and I did not want them to start any weird rumors. It was then that I noticed a rather large backpack that had been propping up my head as a makeshift pillow. I grabbed it, strapped it on, and we all headed out of the cave together.

When I walked out into the open forest I was amazed at how clear everything was. I could make out every leaf, hear every animal, the forest seemed to sparkle even though it was raining. We walked in a comfortable silence to their car. I got in the back with their daughter Lea. I brought my backpack into my lap, unzipped it, and dug around inside. There was a Ziploc bag on top with a passport, social security number, and a driver's license inside. I pushed that out of the way and gulped. There was cash in the bottom, a lot of cash. More than I had ever seen. It seems like that little bastard Elaezar wanted to make sure I had enough money to start my new "life". At least I wouldn't be poor.

We arrived in Port Angeles about fifteen minutes after leaving their car, they dropped me off at the ferry even though I had no intention of using it. When they were out of sight I ran back into the forest and headed to Forks.

I was so fast. I now knew why _he_ had enjoyed it so much. After about ten minutes of running I smelled something really good so I ran toward it, and found a bear. I ran at the bear and laughed as it made futile swipes at my body. I was so thirsty that I didn't think about it, I let my instincts take over and fed. No wonder Emmet liked bear, they were delicious. Once I was done I stepped back, and looked down at myself to survey the damage. Shit. I was covered in blood and what was left of my clothes was barely hanging on, they had been badly shredded by that delicious bear.

I made a decision to go home one more time. It was dark when I got to the edge of the woods by my house. I knew that Charlie was not home because I could not hear a heartbeat coming from inside the house. I walked up to my open window and jumped inside, it was so easy. I surveyed the room I had left not even a week ago. I wanted-no needed something to remember my parents by and my time as a human. I knew that whatever I took from my room that Charlie would not notice because he was not the type of person to pay attention to a girl's clutter. I changed out of my shredded and bloodied clothes into a plain white t-shirt, black skinny jeans, and black ballet flats. I packed about four days worth of clothes into an old duffle bag. I also took my photo albums. I was about to leave when I walked over a section of the floor that shifted slightly under my weight. That was weird. I bent down and slipped my fingernail into the edge of the board, it came right up. When I saw what was under the floorboard I wanted to cry. There tucked into an empty space was the stuff that _he_ had taken from me after he left. There was also something that had not been there before. It was a bracelet with a delicate silver chain and a diamond in the shape of a heart dangled off of one end. I strapped it onto my right wrist and packed what was under the floorboard into the duffle with the other things. I took one last look around and ran to the meadow. I had to think.

I sat in the middle of the meadow and thoughts chased each other around in my head. Why had be hidden those things? What was I going to do? Where was I going to go? Should I try to find _them_? Hours passed the sun came up and illuminated the meadow, which looked ten times more magical now that I was a vampire. I thought back to my human life and although it was a little fuzzy I could remember all of it. What I remembered most vividly was the last year. When I got to the part of my life when the Cullens had entered it I found that even though the thought of them still hurt, it was manageable. I could think about Edward now and not feel like I was falling into a dark pit. I came up with theories of why he had left my stuff in my room and thought that the most sensible reason was that he didn't want to take it from me because he still cared about me. He cared about me still I was certain, but I still could not forgive him for leaving me. He might care for me, but he obviously did not love me enough to stay or turn me so that we could spend eternity together. Obviously none of them did. The bracelet was pretty, but it did not mean anything. I still could not believe that my mom and Phil were dead, but I accepted it. I also knew that Charlie would grieve for me and Renee but that in time he was better off without me there. With me out of the picture he had a chance at a full life. He would remember me with sadness but he would recover.

I decided I needed a hobby, or I would probably become the world's most depressed vampire. I had been a pathetic excuse for a human towards the end and I did not want to have that carry over and ruin my fresh start. I was even starting to think of Elaezar without automatically inserting the word bastard. Life was looking up. My hobby needed to be something that I was interested in that would help me begin a new chapter in my life. I looked around the beautiful meadow and the thought flitted into my mind immediately. I would learn to paint......... in France.

**A/N: Reviews make me jump up and down like Alice in a shoe store!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Sorry for not updating sooner but I'm in the middle of nowhere and internet connections are few and far between. **

**Chapter 5**

Ever since the Cullen's had left me I had not gotten excited about anything, but once I made the decision to travel to France I started to look ahead to it with downright happiness. I was in the meadow lying in the soft grass looking up at the stars and decided there was no time like the present. I popped up to my feet and with the aid of my newfound grace and balance didn't even waver. I smiled softly to myself and started running east.

The wind whipped past my face, my hair streamed behind me like a ribbon, and I moved faster I could have ever imagined. I loved running! I felt free and untamed, and for the first time since I jumped off o the cliff at La Push I was smiling.

While I was running I was also planning. How was I going to get to France? I couldn't fly, I didn't have a passport. I could try to dazzle a poor unsuspecting airline employee but that seemed like a lot more trouble than it was worth. Every possible way I could think to get to France involved a passport. It was somewhere around Indiana when it hit me. I could swim to France. Carlisle had done it, and at the time I thought he was crazy, but Hell why not? It's not like anything in the ocean can hurt me. I had been running for about eight hours when I arrived in Maine; my chosen departure point for my swim across the Atlantic Ocean.

Once I got to the beach I changed into shorts and a tank top, strapped on my backpack and tied my duffle to it; both were waterproof so all my stuff would remain nice and dry. To ensure that they would not sink I tied four lifejackets to them that I had…stole from the dock and jumped in. When the water hit my body I wryly thought, wow, this is warmer than I am, and started swimming. Swimming was shockingly easy, but a tad awkward because of the luggage I was toting around on my back. I would have thought that with a body that felt like chiseled granite to humans that I would have had to work harder to stay afloat, but it turns out vampires are good swimmers.

The water shone like it was infused with diamonds, but with my enhanced vamp vision I could see through the surface and down into the oceans watery depths. I was a little disappointed in the amount of sea life I encountered but not very surprised. After all why would a dolphin or school of fish make friends with a predator? It was about three hours into my swim towards France when I saw a shark the size of Jaws swimming towards me. It kept coming and then stopped about 20 feet away.

If a shark could look confused I am betting Jaws Jr. would have been scratching his head. After all he is the fearsome king of the seas; why was this little 5 ft 4in girl calmly treading water grinning like a maniac? The reason I was grinning at the fearsome beast 20 feet away was that I had been getting thirsty since I got in the water, dinner had just arrived. I quickly detached my duffle backpack and swam at lightning speed towards the shark. I latched onto Jaws Jr., punched him in the head, and drained him dry. My backpack and duffle bag were floating a short distance away and as I retrieved them I realized that I Bella Swan had conquered one of the deadliest beings in the ocean in just a little over three minutes.

In a short six hours I was wading onto one France's beaches. To start a new life, and to hopefully forget all the pain and suffering of the former one I had endured.

It was late in the afternoon when I got out of the water, the shore was deserted, which was good, no humans I had to lie to. Once I had gotten to a bit of dry land I peeled off my wet shorts and tank top and opened my duffle bag and got out some black skinny jeans, a dark blue v-necked t-shirt and my black ballet flats. I did not know what was in "vogue" in France but they were clean and dry and I was limited to what I had taken from my room at Charlie's house. As I was getting dressed I noticed that my clothes fit differently. When I was human I had barely any curves, and while I did not have a mirror with me I could tell this was no longer the case. I was still slender but now it seemed like I had more of an hourglass shape. I started walking away from the shoreline thinking about what my next move was.

I knew a little French from high school back in forks. The teacher had taught us "emergency French". She had said,

"I am going to teach you all emergency French." "You will not be able to speak it fluently but after this year if you ever find yourself lost, hungry, or needing a bathroom you will know how to speak to the locals to get what you need."

She did too. I could speak really good emergency French. Unfortunately that was not going to help me one bit here. I needed to speak like a local so that when I enrolled in art school they would not ask me for any papers/transcripts from my last school.

After walking about a quarter of a mile inland I came across a paved road. I continued to follow it for about one-half of a mile at which point I saw a sign for a Bed and Breakfast. It was twilight and while I did not need to sleep anymore I still had to plan my next step. How was I going to learn French without calling any attention to myself as a foreigner? As I stood looking at the sign I started to get a strange feeling, it was almost as if once I had seen that sign that I had become linked to this place. I could not explain it, maybe it was a power I was developing but it felt like I had been brought to this specific place by fate. So I started walking down the driveway towards the inevitable.

The driveway that led to the Bed and Breakfast looked seldom used and was quite overgrown. No one had travelled down it lately. I had just walked around a bend in the driveway when I saw it. The house at the end was obviously very old and at one point had probably been quite grand, but now there were apparent signs of disrepair and neglect. Wild rosebushes surrounded the house whose pale blue paint was chipping off. I had to wade through knee length grass as I approached the house.

If it was not for a steady stream of curling smoke coming out of the chimney most humans would probably think it was deserted. I, however, could hear the heartbeat of someone inside so I knew without a doubt that this house was inhabited by only one person.

I walked up onto a sagging, creaking porch and knocked on the front door. The door was also in disrepair; the white paint was peeling and flaking off revealing an older layer of paint beneath it. The door sported something that, at one time, had probably been one of the proprietor's prized features of the house. It also explained where the name, The Jeweled Rose, had stemmed from.

**A/N: Reviews are better than Bella beating up Jaws :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N I hope you enjoy this chapter it was really fun to write. I would like to thank all the people who added my story to their alerts and favorites, and everyone who reviewed. Those reviews are amazing to read and I am always open to suggestions on how to better my story. So thank you from the tips of my toes to the top of my head to: xx99soccerz, AKA Quin, Fantasygirl 256, angel of darkness66, i-heart-twilight-forever, Redbootsukie, sheeiur22, Mad4anime, kristen-mac, lauren mcnab, Roseabell 16, Ache, animallover0109, Mimi-Love-4ever, Juliecutie411, Emotional Flatline, jess1918, converse42, and Zombies Run This Town.**

**CHAPTER 6**

**BPOV**

While I was waiting for the door to be answered I kept busy by studying the door. The old door with the peeling paint did not look sturdy enough to keep out a kid with a credit card, let alone a vampire. What had riveted my attention to this crappy old door was an enormous stained glass rose which took up about one-third of it. Though it was very old it had not lost any of its vibrancy; differing shades of red blended together to create the most stunning image of a rose I had ever seen. Scattered throughout the rose, outlining some of the contours were veins of golden hued glass that shone with the luminosity of the real thing. It was very intricate and the sheer beauty of it had my eyes filling with tears which could not fall. I heard footsteps start coming toward the front door and the deadbolt begin to turn. The door creaked open and standing on the other side was a woman, probably in her early sixties, staring at me over a pair of black reading glasses.

As a human I had been to the hospital more times than I could count. Most of these trips resulted in getting poked with needles, or scanned for x-rays. The look this French woman was giving me was more like a CAT scan.

I stood on the porch nervously shifting my weight from foot to food. I didn't know if I was supposed to break the silence or wait until she did. Maybe, like most humans, she just instinctively became uncomfortable around vampires. So in an effort to put her at ease and seem friendly I smiled, no teeth, and said in my wretched French,

"Bonsoir." "Je m'appelle Isabella." "Avez-vous des chambers libres ce soir?" (Good evening. My name is Isabella. Do you have any rooms available for tonight?) The CAT scan glare was gone in an instant. Her eyes had went from flat to amused in one second. What she did next left me puzzled. She looked me up and down once more and started to laugh. Not a muffled giggle or snort of amusement, but a loud guffaw that seemed like it would go on for some duration. What was so freaking funny? After almost a full minute of hearty laughter she said,

"Judging by that terrible accent am I correct in assuming you are an American?"

Trying to swallow my pride and cover my embarrassment I just nodded my head. Which she must have taken as a sign to continue.

"Well Cheri did you happen to notice the state of my driveway as you walked up it or were you distracted by one of the various electronic devices which kids your age seem to need multiples of?" "Because if you had noticed the overgrown driveway, or the half-collapsed porch I am guessing that you could have answered your own question."

I tried to look less bewildered than I felt but she saw right through me and said,

"No, we do not have any rooms available." "It has been about ten years since this bed and breakfast housed a guest."

It was at this point that I finally found my voice.

"Why did you close the doors?"

"My husband died thirteen years ago and I have rheumatoid arthritis, I could not keep up with the maintenance this old house required, so I shut it down."

At that point the sense of inevitability I had been following descended forcefully on me and I knew that my entire reason for being in France lied with this woman, in this house. Art school could wait; I had an eternity to learn how to paint. My immediate problem was figuring our how I was going to convince this woman to let me stay with her. This problem was one I did not have an answer to at this point. However I guess luck/fate/God heard my dilemma and before I could think of a solution to it she nodded her head and motioned for me to follow her inside the house. She then said,

"A girl as gorgeous as you should not be wandering around at night, alone, in a foreign country." "I am correct in thinking that sick bastards are living all over the planet, so why do you seem to be oblivious to this well-known fact?"

What. The. Hell. The mouth on this woman…geesh. One minute inviting me into her home and the next calling me a pretty girl with cotton fluff between her ears instead of a brain. Instead of telling her I was a vampire and that I was more of a threat than any of those "sick bastards" I opted to take the high road and not terrify the human. However, I could not keep a trace of sarcasm from creeping into my tone.

"No, I am not oblivious to that fact, quite the contrary actually." "I just arrived here today and I wanted to walk around the French countryside until my tour bus (yes I lied, there really is no way around it) arrived." "So I walked around for a bit and ended up at the location appointed by the tour agency for all of its guests to meet at." "I waited two hours and no one ever came; so I assume that it was a hoax, which is why you should never trust the fucking internet." "After that I started walking down the road looking for a place to stay the night, and to my relief I finally saw a sign for a lovely Bed and Breakfast with an enchanting name." "I walked down the driveway and instead of finding a place to stay I found a cranky woman who wants to lecture me and speak to me as if I have fluff between my ears." "Now are you going to make me go back out into the cold/dark/dangerous night or can I sleep on your couch tonight?"

Instead of being offended after my little rant and telling me to get my ass out the door she gave me a big smile and I sensed that I had passed some sort of test.

"Well don't get testy with me little girl, of course you can sleep on the couch there is a quilt and a pillow already on it."

Her next question caught me by surprise.

"Do you play scrabble?"

"Only in English because mon francis est mauvis (my French is bad)."

"You do not have to tell me that Cheri, it is quite apparent."

So we passed a couple hours playing a cutthroat game of scrabble which I ended up losing by more than fifty points. Even though I was now faster and stronger I guess I was not smarter, which sucked, although I had noticed that I could think more rapidly. After the game she excused herself and went to bed. I spent the rest of the night exploring the house, and grounds and trying to think of a reason to stay here that she would agree to. By morning I had a clear course of action and I was eighty-five percent sure it would work.

**A/N I know I probably screwed up the french, blame google.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who added me on their favorites or alerts! Also thank you for the reviews, they really do get me to write faster. If you have any ideas for the storyline I would welcome any suggestions. Especially suggestions for fluff. I think either chapter 8 or 9 will be EPOV. How does that sound?**

**Chapter 7**

**BPOV**

During my nighttime wanderings I came to the conclusion that with some intense rehab this house could be great once again because even though every room needed something fixed most of it was just cosmetic. That conclusion led to the idea which I thought had the best chance of convincing , or as she had asked me to call her the night before Phoebe, to let me stay at her house for the foreseeable future. The second floor consisted of eight bedrooms and six bathrooms; two of the bedrooms shared the same bathroom. On this floor there were pictures of various groupings of guests going back almost a century. On the main floor a kitchen took and dining area took up about half of the main floor and the rest was devoted to a family room. The family room had three huge sofas each of which could probably eat six to ten people. A couple of medium sized bookshelves were also in the family room space. The focus in that room was on a massive armoire. Inside the armoire was just about every board game known to mankind. When I discovered the games it made me really sad because obviously Phoebe enjoyed games very much, and she had had no one to play them with for a decade. Maybe she would be more receptive of having a houseguest than I originally thought.

During our scrabble game the night before she told me that she was always up at sunrise; so about fifteen minutes before dawn I started making breakfast. A little bribery never hurt…right? While I was cooking eggs and sausage a beautiful oil painting hanging on the far wall by a little dining alcove of a garden caught my eye. It was perfectly executed with clarity which put photographs to shame the artist seemed to have literally infused it with the garden's essence. The squeak of a floorboard alerted me that Phoebe had woken up and I snapped out of studying the painting and prepared to spring my plan.

As she came down the stairs I popped bread in the toaster. I already had a plate and silverware drying on the counter so she would believe my lied of already eating breakfast. I poured her a glass or orange juice and put the food on the table. To appear friendly and as human as possible I had my hair in two French braids and wore a pair of Levi's and a white tank top. As her foot hit the last stair I heard her say,

"Something smells good enough to harden my arteries and deliver me to heaven. What did you make for breakfast Bella? If you did not make enough for two prepare yourself to get stabbed with a fork."

"Don't get out the sharp objects yet, there's plenty left."

She came around the corner and entered the kitchen. She wore a lightweight flowery dress and had on a pair of low white heels. What was the occasion? I motioned for Phoebe to sit down while I served her breakfast. As I was putting the glass of milk on the table I watched as a small bite of eggs was speared on the very fork she had threatened to stab me with. When the first bite was eaten I heard a small sound of appreciation, followed by;

"My God Bella these eggs!"

I sat gingerly at the other end of the table and got ready to ask my big question.

"So...Phoebe… I know we just met yesterday and for all you know I could be a complete psychopath, but I wandered around a little this morning and I think I have thought of an arrangement which will benefit both of us. It will benefit me because I am in a foreign country alone, I know no one, and I have nowhere to go. I really do not want to go back to the states so soon I would like to stay here with you. Before you make a decision I have to admit that I lied to you because if you agree to this I don't want to have this stupid lie hovering over me. There was no tour bus. I came to France because my soul mate, I sobbed out his name, Edward, left me. I loved him with every molecule of my entire body and he left me. He told me that he didn't want me anymore, and that he didn't love me. I couldn't stand it. I was borderline suicidal for a while and it boiled down for me to either give in to my misery and kill myself or get the hell out of dodge and go somewhere nobody knew me. I am really sorry about lying to you, but this arrangement would benefit you because I know that it kills you to see your house falling down around you. I can fix it."

I glanced up hopefully into Phoebe's eyes, she was giving me another stare down over her glass of milk.

"You think you can fix my house? By yourself? What are you a do-it-yourself prodigy, you cannot be older than 17 or 18."

"I admit I am young and have never restored a house, but I am smart and I am confident I can figure it out."

"If you agree to live by my rules I will let you stay. The rules are: 1.) I need to be consulted about any final decisions concerning the house 2.) You have to be here every night because I do not want to waste my time worrying 3.) We go to church every Sunday, so get your butt upstairs and change you cannot go dressed like a thirteen year old farmhand."

So I went upstairs and changed into a pair of black jeans and a dark blue long sleeved v-necked shirt and twisted my hair up into a messy bun. I went back downstairs and found Phoebe washing the dishes from breakfast, to say she did not look pleased at the outfit change would have been an understatement. Before she could say a biting comment I shrugged and said,

"I'll go shopping this week."

We walked outside and I look up into the cloudy sky and sighed in relief, I had forgotten my newfound need to not be seen in its rays. We walked for about 20 minutes down the road and stopped at a little stone church. As we walked up the steps I could not help replaying countless scenes from movies in my head of vampires spontaneously combusting once they crossed the threshold. That was a myth….right?


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Two hours later I was relieved to know for sure that neither walking into a church nor prolonged exposure was detrimental to the health of a vampire. Actually it was quite the opposite. Renee had never been into the whole church scene…well she would be for a couple of weeks, then move on to something else. Renee always had the attention span of a raccoon, the first hint of something shiny and she was gone.

The sermon today was about our immortal souls and how we should be careful in our life because the more bad/evil things a person does the more tarnished their soul becomes, and after a certain point no amount of good deeds could polish that tarnish off. Ya the priest had used a lot of furniture analogies, but whatever they worked.

Currently Phoebe and I were circulating with her friends, she dragging me around and introducing me to them. I received more than a few startled looks at the temperature of my hands so after the fourth or fifth person I decided to go all American on them and give hugs…which surprisingly went over quite well. However, after about the 30th person I really just did not care anymore, all the Mrs. Whatever's and Mr. Whosits blended together into a mindless quilt of beige personalities and substandard intellect.

"Bella, SNAP out of it!!! I know your daydreams are probably more interesting than your current reality, but Mrs. Philip's here would like to become acquainted with you. Which would explain why her hand has been currently awaiting the pleasure of shaking yours for the last two minutes." I awkwardly stuck my hand out and mumbled,

"Lovely to meet you."

If I was still human my blush would have made a tomato look pale. Mrs. Philips was a tall, stout woman of about 60 with brown hair. Of course she had on her "Sunday best" while I couldn't say she glared at me, disapproval was written across her features and my space-out hadn't helped matters at all.

"Nice to meet you too Bella, Phoebe here tells me you are cousins. How does it feel to be related to a world famous artist?"

I glanced sharply up at Phoebe. Phoebe glared at her,

"Blanche do not go spinning stories, I was never world famous."

"Only because you refused to do gallery showings, Lord knows you have incredible skill."

Phoebe blushed and looked down, intensely studying her shoes. I said, trying to keep the surprise out of my voice,

"Well the whole family is really proud of her."

I knew immediately I had said something wrong. Blanche arched a well-manicured eyebrow at me,

"Oh really?" I was not aware a lot of your family was still around, in fact I was under the impression most of them had passed on."

Oh shit I thought to myself, cover-up time how the hell was I going to save this,

"Of course you are correct, but…" Phoebe interrupted with a hard voice and an icy smile,

"There are not many of my family left but those that are tend to exaggerate my gifts and shower me with undeserved praise, thank you so much for bringing up such painful memories. Come on Bella let's go home I'm tired of the company here."

We trudged back to her house in companionable silence. I had not really put too much faith in fate back in my human days, but at this point I really do not think I could deny it any longer. I had been brought to this place, to Phoebe, by fate. I wanted to find something to occupy my thoughts, a hobby, and chose painting. The woman whose house I randomly show up at is a world famous artist…what are the odds?


End file.
